Back in Ghana today has caused a flood of memories. Sitting here in the home of our missionary friends, windows are open, and outside the rain is cascading down. The rainy season was always my favorite time of year while living in West Africa for twenty-eight years. We experienced two seasons: dry and wet or we would commonly say, “Hot and very hot!” During the rains, temperatures would drop to comfortable levels of coziness.
I still remember teaching in the Bible school in Nigeria and the sound of torrential rains beating down on the metal roof. It cooled temperatures and brains at the same time since you couldn’t hear me teach over the welcomed noise.
I still remember Candra, our youngest, as a little gal, outside, with an umbrella, rain pelleting, and us singing, “Raindrops keep falling on my head…”
I still remember, with our girls much older, occasionally reenacting the whole scene with the three of us rushing out into the yard in the bucketing rain. We ended up refreshed and looking like the proverbial drowned rats.
I still remember the rains falling and collecting enough pressure to force down the compound wall next to our house and flooding into our driveway.
Dirtied gutters in our city would overflow as rains would unclog and forcefully wash debris away. Nothing could withstand the power of the rain.
I still remember our Sheaves for Christ vehicle swishing through rain-made road-rivers and lakes. SFC vehicles, like Star Trek, going where no man had ever gone before, conquering new territories, and forging new paths.
Rain. Refreshing. Reviving. Renewing. Revitalizing.
Cold. Calming. Cleansing. Covering.
I still remember going down into the cold, cleansing waters of baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. My sins washed away! Forever.
I still remember receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost and times of refreshing that came from the presence and power of the Lord.
I still remember failing, faltering, falling and the cleansing feeling of genuine repentance.
“Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin! (Psalms 51:2, AMP).
I’ve got a River of Life falling down on me, flooding me, and flowing through me. Like the songwriter said, “I feel the rain.”
I still remember the rain!
James Poitras 